Munich

English Garden

After another big breakfast at our hotel, we head out on our way to the English Garden. The English Garden is Munich’s largest park and a place that comes highly recommended. After a short tram ride, we arrive and start walking through the various pathways enjoying the peaceful calm away from the hustle and bustle of the city. It’s a massive space and I think we only explore a sliver of it. But it’s a great park and I can only imagine what it’s like int he summer when it is fully utilized. 

English Garden Surfing

After a bit of walking we happen upon a pretty fast moving stream. After admiring it for a little bit we notice that further down the stream are what looks like surfers on the water. As we get closer we see a bunch of surfers hanging out along the sides waiting for their turn. This is something I’ve seen in different videos over the years, but didn’t clock that it would actually be in Munich. So being able to see it up close and not through a screen is a very unexpected treat!

Monopteros

After spending some time watching different surfers go, we press on and arrive at Monopteros. This is a round temple on a hill in the center part of the English Garden with an elevated view the park and the city skyline. It’s a lovely spot to take in the views and we spend some time admiring our surroundings and taking a few family photos together!

Chinese Tower

After walking a little more we arrive at the Chinese Tower. It’s this large pagoda like tower that is surrounded by a beer garden. I’m not sure if there’s actually a huge Asian cultural significance to the tower itself. I suspect only the design elements are Asian whereas everything else is uniquely Bavarian. The beer garden is one of the larger ones and it is one thing I’m really admiring about German culture. Back in Canada people would seek out great patios in the summer to have a drink or two, meanwhile in Germany its built into so many outdoor spaces. It’s a great way to bring people together!

Chinese Tower Beer Garden

We decide to stop at the Chinese tower to get a few snacks and drinks. It’s a cool outdoor setup where there are different stalls for different German food items. We pick up a few sweet and savoury snacks along with some Hofbrau beer to wash it all down. We spend some time enjoying the beer garden life and munching on the different food items. Another thing I want to note at this point is that somehow, I’m really enjoying fries in Germany. For some reason they are almost always crispy on the outside and soft on the inside. They just seem to do it right and I find it something I’m looking forward to ordering anytime I see them on the menu!

Hofgarten

We start to make our way back towards our hotel, but instead of taking transit we decide to walk. And in doing so we stroll through some really beautiful areas on our way home. One such area is the Hofgarten. It’s a garden in the centre of Munich that is surrounded by beautiful historical buildings. At its centre is a pavilion that is dedicated to the Goddess Diana. While we didn’t check out the surrounding buildings, we did spend some time strolling through the Garden. Even on a bit of a cloudy day, its a beautiful experience to walk through it!

Haribo 

AS we enter back into the Old town of Munich, we head over to the Haribo store. Given Germany is the home of Haribo, we are keen to check out the offerings. On top of some of their most popular candies like gummy bears, they have a wide variety of other candies that aren’t easy to find in Canada. So all of us end up picking up a good selection of different sweet treats!

Schiller Brau

After the Haribo store we make our way back to our hotel to rest a little before going out for dinner. Dinner tonight will be at a restaurant called Schiller Brau. It’s a small brewery that also serves traditional Bavarian food. We order a round of drinks and some more Bavarian inspired food like spaetzle and roast beef which satisfies our hunger pretty well! We spend the time enjoying food and each others company. 

BMW Museum and Welt Building

The next day we head out to the Olympic Park area of Munich. This is also home to the BMW Museum and WELT Building. After a short train ride we arrive and take some time to admire the very cool architecture of both the Museum and the Welt Building.  Because not everyone is keen to go through the Museum and history of BMW, we decide not to pay admission and check out the Museum. 

The BMW Welt however, is free to enter and we all head inside to check it out. Inside is a what I can only describe as a BMW showroom on steroids. It has models of cars from all the different brands under the BMW group of companies. In addition its also a place where if you purchased a vehicle you could come here to pick it up and “drive it off the lot”. All of this is housed in an architecturally beautiful and modern building. There’s a little something for everyone to appreciate here, and so we all spend an hour or two wandering the massive building and admiring the different cars!

Munich Olympic Park

The BMW buildings are also adjacent to Munich Olympic Park. This is the site of the 1972 Olympics. Being an Olympic junkie, this is a super cool visit for me. It’s a huge park and event space now and there is even a mountain biking event happening during our visit. We spend some time wandering around the main areas of the site and checking out some of the old venue buildings. It’s a massive site and we don’t really have the time to explore all of it. But being able to imagine what Olympic Games time would be like with the site as a backdrop is something I really enjoyed doing. 

Olympic Park Beer Garden

Inside the Olympic Park is another Beer Garden! Almost like moths to a flame our family decides to stop off for another snack! A few more beers, another order of fries for me and a few other sweet and savory treats and you have the makings of a pretty satisfying family lunch!

Memorial Site for the 1972 Olympic Attack

One of the noteworthy events of the 1972 Munich Olympics is the tragic hostage taking and killing of Israeli Olympic team members. Because of this there are elements of the park that are dedicated to memorialize this sad event. There is a multimedia information area that goes into detail about the tragic events. It speaks of the events leading up to it and also everything that happened during. It’s a very well setup, albeit sobering, memorial. 

Max’s Beef Noodle House

After our visit to the Olympic Park, we once again head back to our hotel to rest in the afternoon. We decide to head back out again in the evening for dinner. Even though we’re in Germany, we decide to visit a well reviewed Chinese Noodle restaurant called Max’s Beef Noodle House. When we arrive there’s a short line in front which is already an indication that its’ a popular eatery. After a short wait we’re seated and make our noodle orders. I’m happy to report that the reviews are well founded as the hand pulled noodles are very tasty and everyone of our party are pleasantly surprised at how much we enjoyed it! After finishing our meal we head outside to find that line has almost tripled in size! We’re very thankful that we got in when we did and it further reinforces for us that we made a good choice for dinner!

Sadly tomorrow we will be leaving Munich and making our way to Frankfurt. So we do a little packing and preparing ourselves for another day of travel.